EDITORIAL: Jay-Z, Beyonce and Cuba ... licensed to travel

There's nothing quite like a political uproar over a trip by a couple of one-name entertainers to put a historical absurdity into perspective.

Rapper Jay-Z and his wife, pop star Beyonce, last week visited Cuba for four days on the occasion of their fifth wedding anniversary.

In short order, you would have thought the life of the American Republic had been put in jeopardy.

U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., huffed and puffed about how "very disconcerting" she found it "that these two mega stars would go down to Cuba and vacation as if they were in a tropical paradise and not say one word about the brutality their hosts display against all pro democracy activists."

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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., demanded an investigation into the circumstances of the trip.

The issue, according to the critics, was whether the trip had been properly licensed by the United States government.

So, let's stop right there and ponder that issue.

Licensed by the U.S. government?

Who in the world thinks that our government should be in the business of licensing the foreign travel of American citizens?

Congress does, for restrictions on travel to Cuba have been a part of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo against it.

The Treasury Department provides licenses to visit Cuba for educational exchanges and programs that promote "people-to-people contact" and "contribute to the development of civil society in Cuba."

Tourism is explicitly forbidden.

Still, according to Reuters, U.S. firms ranging from National Geographic to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the American Automobile Association provide licensed trips, however officially characterized.

Americans routinely evade the licensing requirement by departing from a third country, a ruse made possible because Cuban immigration officials don't stamp the passports of visiting Americans.

It is, however, not so easy to evade detection when you are international entertainment stars.

Although their trip to Cuba was unannounced, Beyonce and Jay-Z were quickly surrounded by thousands of fans as they strolled through the streets of Havana, an event captured by video.

This led to congressional demands to know whether the trip had been licensed.

According to Reuters, which cited an unidentified source, the trip, in fact, was licensed.

But how absurd it all was -- and is.

Whether we should have a trade embargo on Cuba in the first place is open to question. The policy is held hostage by hardline Cuban-Americans who hold sway in Florida, an important state in presidential elections.

Where Americans choose to go for otherwise lawful purposes very definitely should be a matter of each citizen's free will, not something held hostage to the nation's foreign policy.